Medieval History
There will be one or two new posts this week. I apologise that things have been a bit slow of late, I have the good excuse of moving house and settling into a new parish. I had a lovely little excursion last week into Nottinghamshire and one of the churches I visited was Low Marnham, a redundant church in a rather remote area close to the Trent. It's a church I last visited ten years ago when I was working on my thesis, as there are some fragments of exceptionally bad early sixteenth century glass, including this head of St James the Great.
The church itself is very atmospheric, it has a nave with aisles that entered through a sturdy transitional north arcade (see below) and a beautiful Early English south arcade with crisp stiff leaf capitals. The photo at the top of the post shows the centre pier of the north chapel arcade, which is embellished with equally fine stiff leaf. A lot of the outer walls of the church were rebuilt in the sixteenth century and the lights of the north aisle and clerestory windows are topped with the usual depressed arches of that period.
If that's not enough there are a couple of magnificent late seventeenth century Baroque cartouches. The one in the north chapel, dating from the late 1690s, is topped with putti and is supported rather dramatically on two grisly winged skulls.
- Skelton Stiff Leaf
Shortly after writing my recent post on stiff-leaf and posting a photo of the stiff leaf on the doorway at Skelton St Giles near York, I came across the following article. http://www.dioceseofyork.org.uk/news-events/news/news-from-the-diocese-of-york/01384.html...
- Lovely, Lovely Stiff Leaf
'Early English capitals are not so much diversified as Norman. When foliage is introduced it is placed upon the bell of the capital; the leaves usually have stiff stalks rising from the neck of the bell, hence called technically "stiff-leaf foliage,"...
- Another Atmospheric Interior
If you thought Nettlecombe had atmosphere, well Molland church on Exmoor, in Devon, has even more. It is one of those churches that the Victorian's forgot and wasn't subjected to a drastic restoration in the nineteenth century. Consequently...
- Late Gothic Meets Early Renaissance
You are going to have to cope with an awful lot of images of Nottinghamshire over the next few months. Being so close to the Nottinghamshire border, I am taking the opportunity to revisit a number of places in the county that I first visited ten years...
- Inglesham Church, Wiltshire
I hinted last week that the Saxon Virgin and Child at Inglesham in Wiltshire, was just a taster and I would return to discuss the delights of Inglesham church in greater depth. It is one of my very favourite church buildings, one with a special atmosphere,...
Medieval History
Stiff leaf, bad glass and Baroque monuments.
There will be one or two new posts this week. I apologise that things have been a bit slow of late, I have the good excuse of moving house and settling into a new parish. I had a lovely little excursion last week into Nottinghamshire and one of the churches I visited was Low Marnham, a redundant church in a rather remote area close to the Trent. It's a church I last visited ten years ago when I was working on my thesis, as there are some fragments of exceptionally bad early sixteenth century glass, including this head of St James the Great.
The church itself is very atmospheric, it has a nave with aisles that entered through a sturdy transitional north arcade (see below) and a beautiful Early English south arcade with crisp stiff leaf capitals. The photo at the top of the post shows the centre pier of the north chapel arcade, which is embellished with equally fine stiff leaf. A lot of the outer walls of the church were rebuilt in the sixteenth century and the lights of the north aisle and clerestory windows are topped with the usual depressed arches of that period.
If that's not enough there are a couple of magnificent late seventeenth century Baroque cartouches. The one in the north chapel, dating from the late 1690s, is topped with putti and is supported rather dramatically on two grisly winged skulls.
- Skelton Stiff Leaf
Shortly after writing my recent post on stiff-leaf and posting a photo of the stiff leaf on the doorway at Skelton St Giles near York, I came across the following article. http://www.dioceseofyork.org.uk/news-events/news/news-from-the-diocese-of-york/01384.html...
- Lovely, Lovely Stiff Leaf
'Early English capitals are not so much diversified as Norman. When foliage is introduced it is placed upon the bell of the capital; the leaves usually have stiff stalks rising from the neck of the bell, hence called technically "stiff-leaf foliage,"...
- Another Atmospheric Interior
If you thought Nettlecombe had atmosphere, well Molland church on Exmoor, in Devon, has even more. It is one of those churches that the Victorian's forgot and wasn't subjected to a drastic restoration in the nineteenth century. Consequently...
- Late Gothic Meets Early Renaissance
You are going to have to cope with an awful lot of images of Nottinghamshire over the next few months. Being so close to the Nottinghamshire border, I am taking the opportunity to revisit a number of places in the county that I first visited ten years...
- Inglesham Church, Wiltshire
I hinted last week that the Saxon Virgin and Child at Inglesham in Wiltshire, was just a taster and I would return to discuss the delights of Inglesham church in greater depth. It is one of my very favourite church buildings, one with a special atmosphere,...